Myths and heroes : mythology

Hello!

Today I will be talking about Myths and heroes. A myth being a story whose veracity can not be verified, wether it is true, partly true or just maid up we can’t know for sure. All cultures have myths that developed over time, and as a whole form a mythology. Mythology includes the legends of our history, our religions,  stories of how the world was created, and our heroes. These stories have great symbolic power, and this may be a major reason why they survive as long as they do, sometimes for thousands of years. On the other hand, a hero is a person who is admired for its courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities, a role model in sum, who we look up to. Throughout history, kings and queens have had a most predominant role in the constitution of our mythology. From Midas to Napoleon, men and women of great power that have made history have been surrounded by legends and maid into heroes. In this presentation I will try to understands what it takes and what it implies to be such a role model. To do so I will be focussing on three documents dealing about three famous queens of England. An excerpt from Alison Weir’s historical novel The lady Elizabeth (2008) recounting how the future queen Elizabeth, then a child, reacted to the announcement of the birth of her royal brother. An extract from Shrabani Basu’s biography: Victoria and Abdul, the true story of the queen’s closest confidant (2010), describing the special relationship that united this twenty four years old Indian muslim and the elderly queen Victoria. An extract from Alan Bennett’s novella The uncommon reader relating queen Elizabeth the second’s sudden fancy for literature. Firstly these three women’s lives revolved around duty. Secondly they were very lonely persons and finally they were all animated with the envy to connect with others.

All those queens, because of their education and because of the role they embody were always expected to follow protocol and put duty first. Elizabeth the second, even if she respond to here private secretary and humiliate him by insulting his home country, she is the most resigned and obedient of all those three woman as she says she has been focused only on duty for the past 50 years. She reeds because she feels it is her duty to get to know her people and because reading is the easiest way to do so for her. In reading as in all things, duty comes prior to pleasure for the queen. Victoria on the other hand is the most independent and strong willed of the three. Although she bends to duty, she assert her own will by attaching to Abdul, ignoring for once her obligation and ignoring opposition. Because they are queens, their own personality is overrun by there role. Therefore they hide their true self, making it very hard to tie bounds.

Those queens are lonely, isolated from others by the very nature of there condition: Elizabeth lives away from london and her family which she haven’t seen for ten months. She has no friends and only her father and sisters’s gifts and letters brighten her gloomy life. As a princess she cant befriend who she wants nor can she choose what to do. On her side Victoria stands alone in a see of officials uninterested with anything else than the queen, especially not the woman behind it. But fortunately enough for her she has found Abdul with whom she can be herself. Rulers are always seen for

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